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All Strategies

Back Spread with Calls
This is an interesting and unusual strategy. Essentially, you’re selling an at-the-money short call spread in order to help pay for the extra out-of-the-money long call at strike B. Ideally, you...

Back Spread with Puts
This is an interesting and unusual strategy. Essentially, you’re selling an at-the-money short put spread in order to help pay for the extra out-of-the-money long put at strike A. Ideally, you want...

Buy Corporate BondThe Strategy
As the name implies, corporate bonds are issued by companies - usually large, publicly traded ones. The company borrows money from investors to fund business initiatives like buying new...

Buy Growth Mutual FundGrowth mutual funds, as the name implies, invest in “growth stocks”. A growth stock is typically a younger, burgeoning company with earnings or revenue that’s growing faster than the average firm....

Buy Index Mutual FundsAn index mutual fund is typically comprised of most or all of the stocks that make up a particular index. The reason to own an index mutual fund is to take advantage of broad-based bullish activity...

Buy Municipal BondMunicipal bonds (also known as “munis”) are issued by states, cities, counties and other governmental entities below the federal level in order to raise money for public improvements like highways,...

Buy Treasury BondTreasury bonds  also known as “Treasuries” or “T-Bonds” is the umbrella term for different types of bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury. Treasuries come in three main types based on the time...

Buy Value Mutual FundValue mutual funds seek out stocks that the fund management considers undervalued by the marketplace – good bargains at current prices. Typically, this involves using fundamental analysis to examine...

Cash-Secured PutsA put option gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying stock at a given price for a given period of time. Put sellers earn a premium in exchange for taking on an...

Christmas Tree Butterfly with CallsYou can think of this strategy as simultaneously buying one long call spread with strikes A and C and selling two short call spreads with strikes C and D. Because the long call spread skips over...

Christmas Tree Butterfly with PutsYou can think of this strategy as simultaneously buying one long put spread with strikes D and B and selling two bear put spreads with strikes B and A. Because the long put spread skips over strike C...

Collar
You can think of a collar as simultaneously running a protective put and a covered call. Some investors think this is a sexy trade because the covered call helps to pay for the protective put. So...

Covered CallThe Strategy
Selling the call obligates you to sell stock you already own at strike price A if the option is assigned.
Some investors will run this strategy after they’ve already seen nice gains...

Diagonal Put Spread
You can think of this as a two-step strategy. It’s a cross between a long calendar spread with puts and a short put spread. It starts out as a time decay play. Then once you sell a second put with...

Diagonal Spread with Calls
You can think of this as a two-step strategy. It’s a cross between a long calendar call spread and a short call spread. It starts out as a time decay play. Then once you sell a second call with...

Double DiagonalAt the outset of this strategy, you’re simultaneously running a diagonal call spread and a diagonal put spread. Both of those strategies are time-decay plays. You’re taking advantage of...

Fig Leaf
This strategy acts like a covered call but uses a LEAPS call as a surrogate for owning the stock. Though the two plays are similar, managing options with two different expiration dates makes a...

Front Spread with CallsBuying the call gives you the right to buy stock at strike price A. Selling the two calls gives you the obligation to sell stock at strike price B if the options are assigned. This strategy enables...

Front Spread with PutsBuying the put gives you the right to sell stock at strike price B. Selling the two puts gives you the obligation to buy stock at strike price A if the options are assigned. This strategy enables you...

Inverse Skip Strike Butterfly with CallsYou can think of this strategy as a back spread with calls with a twist. Instead of simply running a back spread with calls (sell one call, buy two calls), selling the extra call at strike D helps to...

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Multiple-leg options strategies involve additional risks and multiple commissions, and may result in complex tax treatments. Please consult your tax adviser. Implied volatility represents the consensus of the marketplace as to the future level of stock price volatility or the probability of reaching a specific price point. The Greeks represent the consensus of the marketplace as to how the option will react to changes in certain variables associated with the pricing of an option contract. There is no guarantee that the forecasts of implied volatility or the Greeks will be correct.

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